In this photo provided by Microsoft on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006, the new "Zune" portable media player is shown in black, white, and brown. The device represents Microsoft Corp.'s effort to compete against Apple's iPod will include wireless technology to let people share their favorite songs, playlists or pictures with other Zune users. Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Courtesy Microsoft, Douglas Evans) HANDOUT PHOTO, less

In this photo provided by Microsoft on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006, the new "Zune" portable media player is shown in black, white, and brown. The device represents Microsoft Corp.'s effort to compete against ... more

Microsoft, days after Apple unveiled its new line of iPods, revealed details of its Zune digital media player, which will premiere in time for the holidays.

The portable device will store 30 GB of songs, photos and video, which users will be able to buy from the Zune Marketplace (separate from Urge, the online music service developed in partnership with MTV that was launched earlier this year with Windows Media Player 11).

The Zune will come in three colors: black, white and brown. Yup, brown. Not pink.

It will also have wireless technology to let users swap music, an FM tuner and a 3-inch screen. Microsoft will offer accessories such as a car pack and travel pack and is working with folks like Digital Lifestyle Outfitters and Palo Alto's Speck Products, known for their iPod accessories.

Still no details on price, except that it will be "competitive." No details on when they'll hit stores, either.

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On the wireless music-swapping front: Zune customers will be able to share between Zune's full-length sample tracks of select songs, playlists, pictures and homemade recordings, according to Microsoft. Like a song? Users will be able to listen to it three times over three days, then flag it on the device and purchase it from the Zune Marketplace.

-- Ellen Lee

Dyson pulls plug on tech conference

Call it a sign of the times, but what is arguably the longest-running elite high-tech conference will be a thing of the past. Technology guru Esther Dyson has quietly put out the word that the 2006 PC Forum, held in March in Carlsbad (San Diego County), will be the last.

Wrote Dyson in a note that found its way to Tech Chronicles: "It had a great run, from 1977 to 2006, and we decided to end it before anyone asked us to."

Her decision surprised and saddened venture capitalist Roger McNamee, who responded to an e-mail query with this message via his cell phone: "In its heyday it was one of the seminal gatherings of movers and shakers in the PC industry. ... Esther Dyson did the technology community a huge favor by organizing it."

Veteran Silicon Valley conference-watcher Shel Israel, author of the book and blog "Naked Conversations," said PC Forum traced its pedigree back to venture capitalist Ben Rosen, who in addition to investing in Lotus and Compaq, also started a research firm that Dyson bought in 1983 and expanded in reach and prominence -- bringing together top industry leaders willing to pay thousands of dollars to rub elbows with one another.

"She was visionary but pragmatic," said San Francisco tech consultant Jerry Michalski, who was managing editor of Dyson's Release 1.0 newsletter in the 1990s.

Dyson phoned from New York to say that organizing the conference was a grueling exercise. "I loved it but it was always a huge amount of work," she said, invariably followed by a "postpartum depression." After this year's conference she decided that, after years of constantly trying to improve on the event, "I didn't feel I could do it better."

Israel, the conference watcher, said other forces were operating in the background -- the aging of the stalwarts who populated her shows and the general trend toward less-expensive, less-formal events.

While plenty of people in the Internet world shout about "first mover advantage," Fetyko believes that old-media companies have a lot to gain in the new media environment.

All the existing content is "an asset that can be leveraged online," Fetyko said. "They can run those Web sites and feed them with content and basically follow the audience" as it migrates to the digital world.

I talked to Fetyko to get ready for his company's conference next week at the Mark Hopkins Hotel.

His main theme was that while many people focus on search-related advertising as the big thing online these days, that's mostly the work of direct marketers. Advertisers looking to build brands are now finding more creative ways to use the Web -- and consumers' use of broadband connections makes video increasingly viable.

"A lot of advertising revenues are still sitting on the sidelines," Fetyko said.

One result will be that a broad industry will grow up around online video advertising, he said. "There's a whole gamut," he said. "There's a value chain within online video. There are companies to help with the encoding of that video when the video is created, and companies to search it when it's in a database. There's another whole set of companies that deal with digital asset management -- the companies that carry the content and stream the content."

Companies he's following include Viewpoint, which facilitates video ad searching; Narrowstep, which helps play the content, giving the Internet a television-like experience; and Australia's Roo Group, which aggregates video from a number of sites (like the Associated Press, Reuters and Fox Sports) and syndicates it to smaller sites.

On that note, he said, he wouldn't be surprised if News Corp. -- run by that famous Aussie Rupert Murdoch, who now has religion about the Internet (see: MySpace) -- tries to acquire the Roo Group. Fetyko was quick to add that he didn't have any information but was merely speculating.